WELCOME TO YET another full year of British killers, investigators, femmes fatales, everymen and women in peril and the whole kitchen sink of crime and mystery fiction as practised on our hallowed shores.
These very shores where Conan Doyle gave birth to Sherlock Holmes, Colin Dexter to Inspector Morse, Raymond Chandler went to school and, less of a prestigious or nationalistic landmark, Jack the Ripper, the first universally feared serial killer, slashed his way into the hall of infamy.
Better critics than me have attempted to define where British crime and thrillers differ from their American or European counterparts. I will not attempt it. After all there are cosy US authors who work in the footsteps of Agatha Christie, as there are homegrown Brits who write as hardboiled blood-and-guts prose as Chandler and Hammett and their contemporary representatives. They have crooked and/or tormented cops; we have them too. They have long highways; we have motorways. But what they all have in common is the fact that on both continents crime and mystery writing thrives and not a year goes by without impressive new talent emerging and the genre we love is seen renewing itself constantly like waves lapping against the shore.
I’ve always tried to present the whole breadth of crime, mystery and thriller writing in these annual anthologies. So you won’t just find gentle stories of detection, puzzling historical labyrinths full of devious characters or sharp social comment about the imperfect society we live in beneath the surface of some savage and, often, scary stories. All life is here, moods, settings, villains and goodies and all characters in between. In a nutshell, all the variety and must-read qualities of crime writers at their best. And there is little doubt in my mind that we have on our British (and Celtic) shores a wonderful assortment of outstanding talents.
We welcome back many old favourites but also big “names” like Reginald Hill, Ann Cleeves, R. J. Ellory, John Lawton and Stuart Neville for the very first time. And, as ever, it’s with great joy that we have newcomers like L. C. Tyler, Chris Ewan, Ian Ayris, Col Bury, Matt Hilton and Christine Poulson on board; some are at an early stage in their careers while others have already made a mark for themselves.
Past volumes have enjoyed great critical and commercial success and we’ve gathered a couple of handfuls of nominations for prestigious short story awards. Phil Lovesey’s story in last year’s volume was shortlisted for and subsequently won the CWA Dagger, alongside John Lawton’s delightful spy tale in these pages, and Christine Poulson’s ingenious puzzler, also from this year’s volume, was selected for an American readers’ award, and I am confident more stories from this bumper edition will catch the attention in the best possible way and make crime pay, at any rate from a literary point of view.
So, close the windows tight, check the back door is locked and the front door bolts are safely in place, slip between the bedcovers and dive deep into our wonderful world of crime. When you emerge from the shimmering darkness, it will already be next year and we will have yet another menu of dark and sinister but enjoyable deeds ready for you.
Bon appétit criminel, as they say in France!
Maxim Jakubowski